Category / SS2 SS3 SS4

Steamboat places are aplenty all over Klang Valley, so when it comes to picking one out for dinner during rainy days, it can be a little challenging. The rule of thumb for most people is that the place must be busy, for me, I usually rely on recommendations from friends instead, which was how I got to Dian Huo Xin Wo Steamboat at Kelana Jaya a couple weeks ago.

dian huo xin wo steamboat, Kelana Jaya

This steamboat restaurant is a little bit different from others when it comes to the interior decoration. At first glance, the place looks like a hipster cafe with old typewriter, TV, charcoal iron, and all those sort of memorabilias from yesteryears. Look closer, and you’ll find the built in stove in every table.

decent selection with good choice of soup base

Instead of electric stove or steamboat pot utilized at some places such as Bone & Pot, Dian Huo Xin Wo opts for the traditional gas stove, which I prefer as it is a lot more responsive. Their solution is by placing a gas tank right under each table, I’m not entirely sure if this is the safest manner, but it works pretty well.

For a smallish shop, the menu is pretty comprehensive. There’s more than enough different fish balls (even one with quail eggs inside), meatballs, sliced meat, innards, vegetables, and starters (try the salmon skin) to go around. The “balls” are self-made and pretty good in size, which we enjoyed.

there’s even black chicken in the soup

You’re allowed to choose up to two different soup base for a single pot. We tried the herbal black chicken soup and their signature soup, both broth were plenty flavorful in itself, and of course, refillable whenever running low. There’s also tomyam soup if you fancy something spicy, though I usually prefer sticking with traditional soup base for steamboat.

Condiments in this place doesn’t impress much, there’s 3 different types of chili paste, and you can ask for chili padi, but that’s about it, no fancy fermented beancurd or fried shallot oil, but they are, I guess, sufficient.

The meal came to be about RM 40+ per person, which is in line with most quality air conditioned steamboat meals.

A decade or so ago, Thai food means tomyam, rice, and maybe a few other dishes and you’d have them for lunch and maybe dinner. Over the last few years, I’m glad that Thai cuisine scene in KL has matured quite a bit, and now you can find quite a few sub-categories. There’s the traditional Thai food, fusion (such as PLOY at Clearwater, Fa Ying), boat noodle, non halal options (Surisit, I’m Spicy, My Elephant), and even Thai street food.

Go Thai at PJ SS2

Personally, I have always love Thai street food of the non halal variety, and for a long time, Lai Thai (now Farm Thai) of Seksyen 17 was always my favorite. The place has its flaws, it’s cramped, stuffy, rather pricey, and service has a lot left to be desired, but there was no other options I knew of.

Then Go Thai sprung up at PJ SS2, the same row as those durian stalls that are always packed with people with stinky breath, and they offered just what I love most – non-halal Thai street food.

stewed pork leg rice (khao kha moo)

The restaurant is tastefully done up yet rather unpretentious. The workers speak Thai to each other, and the menu consists of a dozen of so dishes written on white board.

Most importantly, they offer khao kha moo (stewed pork leg rice, RM 9). This dish definitely offers great value, at less than RM 10 with quite a big portion of pork leg, rice, half an egg, and a small portion of vegetable. It was pretty good too.

Thai ice tea, fried pork slices with egg, tomyam seafood

At Go Thai, there are actually very few dishes without pork.

Moo thod khatiam (deep fried pork slices in garlic sauce with egg, RM 9) had those pork slices that was perfectly marinated while not overly spicy.

Tomyam seafood (RM 12) packed with fish slices, prawns, squid, and even some mussels, the broth was thick, spicy, and should satisfy any tomyam lover. It is also the highest priced item on the menu.

red ruby, kway tiao Go Thai, minced pork with rice, kway tiao nam sai

If you prefer noodle, there’s kway tiao nam sai (clear broth, RM 7) or kway tiao Go Thai (spicy version, RM 7), both were delicious, though portion is a little small for KL standard, but you get to order other stuff on the side, like tub thim krab (red ruby, RM 6), a dessert that is best on a hot day after meal.

KY & Haze at Go Thai

Skewers here are supposed to be very good too, and I think that’ll be on my order list the next time I go there. Haze likes the place, and so was mom and my brother when I brought them over during CNY.

Good Laksa Sawarak is a bit of a rare commodity here in Klang Valley, for the longest time, my go-to place remains the stall at Happy Garden in Bangsar, I’ve tried a few other places but usually ended up less than impressed.

Until we decided to give 7th Mile Restaurant at Kelana Jaya try.

7th Mile Kitchen, at Kelana Sentral Service Apartment

Situated at the ground floor of the less than glamorous Kelana Sentral Service Apartment (across from Paradigm Mall by LDP), 7th Mile Restaurant is more of a single stall kopitiam than a restaurant. There’s no air conditioning nor cute decoration, but they have good authentic Sarawakian dishes prepared by Sarawakian at more than reasonable prices.

definitely one of the better Laksa Sarawak around

The laksa sarawak turned out to be rather awesome, the broth was thick and flavorful without having to be overly spicy. There’s prawn, strips of fried egg and all the usual ingredients you find in a bowl of laksa sarawak, it was glorious. We really liked it.

authentic kolo mee and look at that iced coffee

The kolo meehere is pretty good as well, with thin and springy noodle topped with charsiu, minced pork, spring onion, and a hint of those delicious charsiu sauce. It’s a more subtle dish compared to the laksa, I liked it too.

Other than noodles (they also serve tomato mee which I’ve yet to try), they serve pretty mean cup of traditional coffee as well, including three layer tea and Sarawak teh-c peng.

SS2 Monday night pasar malam is probably the 2nd largest pasar malam in Klang Valley, with Taman Connaught’s on Wednesday being slightly larger. There are well over a hundred different stalls offering anything from handphone cases, cloths, to fresh produce, and of course, food.

It’s always an adventure to go there and hunt for food every once in a while, as with most pasar malam, there are always new food offerings from time to time. After all pasar malam is probably the best place to gauge a new (al cheapo) trend, isn’t it?

Here are a few dishes we tried last Monday.

yakitori with pork, shishamo, and even smoked duck

There are a couple stalls offering yakitori, and this one we tried is situated closer to McDonald’s (nearby Taiping char kuih teow stall). We had a stick of smoked duck and a couple sticks of pork and shishamo yakitori each. The pork was succulent and delicious, smoked duck more than passable, but shishamo could be more crispy. RM 12.50 in all.

grilled scallops on stick, choose from five flavors

Next was scallop teppanyaki at this Sea King Teppanyaki stall that goes for RM 5 per stick of 3 scallops. You get to choose from 5 different flavors (bonito, black pepper, garlic, chili powder, or seaweed). We opted for original with teppanyaki sauce. It was pretty delicious too.

Less than RM 2 per scallop? Sign me up anytime.

Abang Jeff’s fried oysters omelet was actually pretty good

Then there’s Abang Jeff’s fried oyster. Being from Penang and got burnt many times ordering fried oysters in Klang Valley, I’m usually pretty skeptical with this dish, but since I was feeling adventurous anyway, we gave it a try.

The version here is a bit different as the oysters and eggs are prepared pretty much separately, but the end result turned out to be pretty decent nonetheless. RM 10 gets you 8 pretty good size oysters with more than edible omelet, so that was good. We really enjoyed this.

banchang kuih anyone?

To cap off the night, we had a crispy ban chang kuih each (RM 1.40) with plenty of sugar, corn, crushed peanuts, and even a bit of coconut inside. Perfect ending for a night of fried/grilled food. Now why don’t they serve beer at pasar malam to go with all these?

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I’m a fan of street foods, and it is not confined to any particular category of street food either. Chinese, Malay, Mamak, I love all of them.

In recent time we have a bit of a food truck movement, but while those are cute and neat, we actually already have food trucks since yonks. The only difference being that food truck 2.0 operates inside the truck, while the original food truck has the operators standing on the road side, eye-to-eye level to diners. I feel that the experience is always a bit more intimate.

Kelana Jaya laksa and ikan bakar stalls

Anyway, here’s a couple old school food trucks opposite the small Giant hypermarket at Kelana Jaya we discovered a short while ago. I first came to this place back in 2007 with my Malay friend Naida (who has since moved to the States) for nasi lemak kukus. Time flies huh?

love the ikan bakar with sauce plastered all over the stingray

The first stall is Ikan Bakar Fend, offering a variety of ikan bakar, including pari, talapia, kembong, cincaru, keli, as well as chicken and cockles.

I went with the default choice of ikan pari (stingray) with rice (RM 10) and was delighted by the portion as well as the quality of the dish. The fish was split into halves with the spicy and slightly sweetish sambal plastered all over, it was delicious and went very well with steamed rice. In fact, the accompanying sauces weren’t even really needed. I really want to try their ayam bakar next time.

Laksa de Kelana, Haze approved of the taste

Another stall worth trying is Laksa de Kelana that offers laksa, and apparently also Malay char kuih teow basah. Haze tried the laksa and was happy with it. The bowl of laksa and two coconut drinks (in cups) cost us RM 6 and was definitely more than worth it.

Another demonstration on how Transitions® Signature lens is useful in day-to-day life. Going from brimming bright outdoor where the lens is tinted to under the roof at one of my favorite breakfast places at Ah Weng Koh, and the lens goes completely transparent in an instant. It’s the sort of convenience you don’t realize until you have it.